James Patrick Carney (17 May 1914 – 7 July 1989) was a notedIrishCeltic scholar.
He was born inPortlaoise,County Laois and was educated at theChristian Brothers school inSynge Street,Dublin. He took his degree atUniversity College Dublin in 1935, before going toBonn University to study underRudolf Thurneysen.[1][2]
On returning to Dublin, Carney worked underOsborn Bergin, Gerard Murphy,Richard Irvine Best andT. F. O'Rahilly. He pioneered an approach to early Irish texts which focused on their literary merit and their affinities with the other literatures of the medieval world.[2] HisStudies in Irish Literature and History which appeared in 1956 challenged the 'nativist' approach to Irish literature which had dominated the scholarship of the previous decades.[2] His work onSaint Patrick also proved controversial.[2] Carney had controversial views that Christianity had in fact been an overthrow of the pagan druidic order. The 1955 publication of James Carney's ‘Studies in Irish Literature and History’ was seen as the beginning point of the late-twentieth century ‘anti-nativist’ movement. The group for the first time promoted the idea that very little can be known of the earlier oral tradition of the Irish, since all that remains are Christian texts written by Christian clergy and that these clergy were not sympathetic to, but critical of paganism.[3][4]
He was attached to theDublin Institute for Advanced Studies from its foundation byÉamon de Valera in 1940 and became Professor of Irish there.[1][5] From 1950–1952 he was visiting professor atUppsala University where he and his wife founded a Department of Celtic Studies.[6] He was awarded an honorary doctorate by that institution in 1975.[5] In 1959, he was appointed member of theRoyal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala.[7]
James Carney along withEoin MacNeill put forward the theory that Ogham was first created as a cryptic alphabet or secret language designed by the Irish at the time of Roman invasion and rule. Both historians believed that the Irish designed it in response to political, military and/or religious reasons so that those with knowledge of just Latin could not read it. Carney identified the genealogies of theKerry poetLuccreth moccu Chiara back to the ancient people ofCíarraige, he provided extensive research on his poem Conailla Medb Míchuru’ ("Medb enjoined evil contracts"), which contains the oldest surviving reference to characters and events from the Ulster Cycle and it is strongly connected to theTáin Bó Cúailnge saga.[8][9][10]
He was married to Maura Morrissey, also an academic and a member of theRoyal Irish Academy, who predeceased him in 1975. The couple had a son,Paul, who was a judge in theIrish High Court.[5]
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